Gateway & Client Engineering Leader - USDS

TikTok USDS Joint Venture; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 257,000 - 616,000; Full time

Job summary

TikTok USDS Joint Venture is seeking an experienced People Leader to build and guide a new Engineering team within the Security and Privacy group. You will own the transition to internal ownership of core security gateways and the MAS endpoint client, spanning iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows and Linux.

You will drive architecture, reliability, and secure SDLC practices while partnering with product, infrastructure, and compliance teams to align security with business objectives and regulatory

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5 years of experience in software or security engineering, with at least 3 years in a people management role leading engineering teams.
• Proven experience with the design and implementation of enterprise-scale security solutions, such as network gateways, proxies, or data loss prevention (DLP) systems.
• Deep understanding of secure SDLC principles and practices.

Responsibilities

• Own the End-to-End Lifecycle: Direct the architecture, design, development, and operation of all security gateways and the MAS endpoint assurance client.
• Drive the Transition to Internal Ownership: Develop and execute a phased strategy to migrate responsibilities from our cloud partner to your internal team, ensuring seamless continuity and improved capabilities.
• Enhance System Reliability and Scalability: Implement SRE best practices to ensure our security infrastructure is highly available, performant, and scalable to meet the demands of all USDS applications.
• Champion Secure SDLC: Integrate threat modeling, security code reviews, and automated testing into the development lifecycle for all custom-engineered solutions.
• Orchestrate Cross-Functional Delivery: Collaborate closely with product, infrastructure, and compliance teams to ensure security solutions are effective, scalable, and aligned with business objectives.
• Build a High-Performing Team: Recruit, hire, and onboard top-tier security engineers, building a diverse team with the skills needed to take on complex engineering challenges.
• Develop and Mentor Talent: Provide coaching, mentorship, and performance management to foster the growth of your team members. Cultivate a culture of technical excellence, innovation, and accountability.
• Set the Technical Vision and Roadmap: Define the long-term technical strategy for gateways and client security, aligning it with the broader USDS security posture and business goals.
• Foster a Culture of Security Ownership: Champion a proactive and collaborative security culture within your team and across the organization.

Skills

Leadership

Security engineering

Software engineering

SDLC

Cloud strategy

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Job description

Responsibilities

About The Team
Gateway & Client Engineering is the team of software engineers that builds the data-inspection and in-app security surfaces protecting TikTok USDS JV's networks and applications. On the network side, we design and operate internet-scale, man-in-the-middle proxy infrastructure that terminates, inspects, and brokers traffic traversing our perimeter — giving security and compliance teams deep visibility into the data flowing in and out of the company without compromising performance or reliability on a global scale. On the client side, we develop in-app security components embedded directly inside our consumer apps that monitor runtime application behavior, detect tampering and abuse, and prevent the apps from being misused or manipulated in ways that put users and the business at risk. Together, these two surfaces — the in-line network proxy and the in-app security agent — form a unified control plane for inspecting, governing, and enforcing policy across every byte on the wire and every app in users' hands.

About the role

We are seeking an experienced and strategic People Leader to build and guide a new Engineering team within the USDS JV Security and Privacy team. This is a critical leadership role, responsible for establishing in-house ownership of the custom solution engineering for our most critical security infrastructure. This leader will own the transition and long-term strategy for the engineering, architecture, and reliability of our core Security Gateways and the MAS Client (our endpoint assurance solution). This scope extends across all USDS applications (iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows, Linux), moving from a vendor-managed model to a world-class internal engineering function. You will be at the forefront of securing our platform, reducing egress risk, and ensuring our systems meet the highest standards of compliance and resilience.

Responsibilities

Technical and Architectural Leadership:

• Own the End-to-End Lifecycle: Direct the architecture, design, development, and operation of all security gateways and the MAS endpoint assurance client.
• Drive the Transition to Internal Ownership: Develop and execute a phased strategy to migrate responsibilities from our cloud partner to your internal team, ensuring seamless continuity and improved capabilities.
• Enhance System Reliability and Scalability: Implement SRE best practices to ensure our security infrastructure is highly available, performant, and scalable to meet the demands of all USDS applications.
• Champion Secure SDLC: Integrate threat modeling, security code reviews, and automated testing into the development lifecycle for all custom-engineered solutions.
• Orchestrate Cross-Functional Delivery: Collaborate closely with product, infrastructure, and compliance teams to ensure security solutions are effective, scalable, and aligned with business objectives.

People and Team Leadership:

• Build a High-Performing Team: Recruit, hire, and onboard top-tier security engineers, building a diverse team with the skills needed to take on complex engineering challenges.
• Develop and Mentor Talent: Provide coaching, mentorship, and performance management to foster the growth of your team members. Cultivate a culture of technical excellence, innovation, and accountability.
• Set the Technical Vision and Roadmap: Define the long-term technical strategy for gateways and client security, aligning it with the broader USDS security posture and business goals.
• Foster a Culture of Security Ownership: Champion a proactive and collaborative security culture within your team and across the organization.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5 years of experience in software or security engineering, with at least 3 years in a people management role leading engineering teams.
• Proven experience with the design and implementation of enterprise-scale security solutions, such as network gateways, proxies, or data loss prevention (DLP) systems.
• Deep understanding of secure software development lifecycle (SDLC) principles and practices.

Preferred Experience:

• Experience leading teams responsible for endpoint security client development (e.g., for assurance, posture checking, or sandboxing).
• Hands-on experience with cloud infrastructure, ideally with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), where our U.S. user data is hosted.
• Expertise in enterprise gateway patterns (e.g., API gateways, egress gateways, database security gateways).
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex, multi-phase technical projects and deliver them on time.
• Experience in conducting threat modeling, security architecture reviews, and leading incident response activities.

About USDS

TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is dedicated to the safety and security of millions of Americans who create, discover, and connect with what they love on the apps we operate. The Joint Venture has been established in compliance with the Executive Order signed by President Trump on September 25, 2025. Our foundation is a comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity program we operate under defined safeguards to protect national security and secure U.S. user data, apps and the algorithm. We safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem, holding decision-making authority for trust and safety policies and moderation. USDS Joint Venture helps ensure Americans can continue to express their creativity, discover new hobbies and interests, and build thriving communities and businesses on a global scale.

On-site presence across teams allows the company to operate with greater speed, alignment, and agility — especially in areas like real-time decision-making, team development, and integrated execution. As such, the company is shifting from a hybrid work model to a fully in-person schedule up to 5 days a week.

Why Join Us

Inspiring creativity is at the core of TikTok's mission. Our innovative product is built to help people authentically express themselves, discover and connect – and our global, diverse teams make that possible. Together, we create value for our communities, inspire creativity and bring joy - a mission we work towards every day.

We strive to do great things with great people. We lead with curiosity, humility, and a desire to make impact in a rapidly growing tech company. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn and innovate as one team. We're resilient and embrace challenges as they come. By constantly iterating and fostering an "Always Day 1" mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless. Join us.

Diversity & Inclusion

TikTok is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.

USDS Reasonable Accommodation

USDS is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at https://tinyurl.com/USDS-RA

Job Information

【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $257400 - $616000 annually.

Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location. Base pay is one part of the Total Package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work, and this role may be eligible for additional discretionary bonuses/incentives, and restricted stock units.

Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Employees have day one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) savings plan with company match, paid parental leave, short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, wellbeing benefits, among others. Employees also receive 10 paid holidays per year, 10 paid sick days per year and 17 days of Paid Personal Time (prorated upon hire with increasing accruals by tenure).

The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.

For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates:

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Our company believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:

1. Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
2. Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems;
3. Exercising sound judgment.